


No Longer Who I Used To Be

by MythicalCreature



Category: Mystery Skulls Animated
Genre: Angst, Hurt No Comfort, I mean this isn't terribly violent, M/M, Writing Prompt, but i'm gonna put it under graphic depictions JUST incase
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-08
Updated: 2020-12-08
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:00:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,695
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27957284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MythicalCreature/pseuds/MythicalCreature
Summary: Another writing prompt request from Tumblr. Prompt: "I can't lose you." "You already did."
Relationships: Arthur & Lewis (Mystery Skulls Animated), Arthur/Lewis (Mystery Skulls Animated)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 51





	No Longer Who I Used To Be

**Author's Note:**

> General warning for spiraling/just bad mental wellbeing in general. Arthur puts himself down a lot in this fic. I'm sorry but this is only pain unfortunately, but I have been thinking abt maybe making a second part where comfort comes, but I won't make any promises.

The manor was tense that night.

So tense, it almost felt like it was some physical object that would burst out of his chest at any second, clawing and scratching at his sides, like it had been trapped in there ever since this whole ordeal started. It was unbearable, but he had to do this. For his best friend.

For Lewis.

Arthur gripped his metal arm. He thought that maybe he should back down, take some time for himself to calm his nerves, but that thought was immediately shot down as soon as it came.

“ _Selfish._ ” The man in orange quietly hissed to himself. He passed through the long, purple hallway.

How could he be thinking about himself, when he was the one who caused this huge, unnecessary fight in the first place? Lewis was in his room, upset. He caused this, now he had to fix it.

Arthur suddenly stopped, slowly looking up at the door he now stood in front of. He stalled for a few seconds, but he knew he had to get on with it and soon, before he had second thoughts and ran away like the coward he was. He was so tired. Why couldn’t things just go back to normal? He knew it wouldn’t be as simple as an ‘I’m sorry’ and then following forgiveness, _he knew that_ , but a part of him wished it had been. What in the world was he even thinking anyways? Going back to their previous normal was just a stupid, stupid little wish.

Nothing would **ever** be the same again.

‘We’ll just have to find a new normal, Artie.’ the bluenette had said. ‘Just be patient… I’m sure we can get to that point. Sometime.’

Her words bounced around the blonde’s head as he quickly reached out for the door handle and pushed the door wide open.

_Well._

Arthur stood there, fists clenching a little, feeling the sweat on his hands and promptly swiping at his shirt in an attempt to dry them.

_No turning back now._

He scanned the room, it was dark and gloomy, the room just barely brightened by the sun shining through thin curtains. He looked for any sign of the magenta spook, but to no avail. He swallowed back his fear; at this point, Arthur didn’t think the atmosphere could get any tenser than it already was, but somehow it managed to do as such.

“L…. Le.. Lewis…?” He took a step in, grasping his prosthetic with a white knuckled grip. “Y… You in here big guy… ?”

Arthur just about jumped out of his skin when the door behind him slammed shut and the lights flickered on. Geez… talk about a haunted house with high levels of paranormal activity…

A few moments passed by. He decided to call out again, this time with a little more confidence. He came in here for a reason, he’ll be damned if he didn’t at least try.

“Lewis…?” Arthur kept on high alert, constantly searching the room. It was deathly still, which would’ve been a funny thought in any other circumstances.

“ **What are you doing here, Arthur?** ” Lewis’s voice boomed with power as it reverberated several times, the words almost blending together.

Arthur covered his ears, it was so loud and kind of messed with his head a little. “I… I just wanted t..to talk to y-you!”

“ **... Why?** ”

Arthur could hear the slight confusion in the ghost's voice.

“ **What, praytell, is there to talk about?** ”

If Lewis didn’t sound pissed before, he certainly did now. Maybe it really wasn’t the best time to talk to his dead best friend… who he’d previously been in a heated argument with not too long before.

“Well… I … I-I… uh…”

_Shit._ Out of all of the things that crossed his mind, why hadn’t he thought of rehearsing over what he was going to say well before running headfirst into a very powerful and now angry ghost’s room?!

Arthur sighed. “I just…”

He then fell silent, scraping his mind for anything useful to say.

A long, suffocating moment passed.

“ **Well? Get on with it, Kingsmen.** ” he growled. Lewis was really starting to get impatient now, but had yet to reveal himself to the smaller man.

Arthur then straightened up, clenching his fists and then unclenching them while taking a deep breath, only succeeding in calming himself enough to at least respond.

“Look… Lewis. I just wanted t..to say that… I’m sorry.”

He was met with silence, so he decided to continue.

“I’m sorry… f-for raising my voice, and… saying those things… a..and then for… sh-shoving you in my fit of rage. I..I...I-I… I didn’t m..mean it……. I’m so so-sorry….”

Arthur lowered his head. His grip had released on his prosthetic sometime earlier but now the tight grip had returned with a force, squeezing a little harder than before.

A low, echoing growl was heard before the room suddenly lit up, bursting into flames. Magenta fire licked at the walls, but went no further than that. Arthur squeaked and jumped away from the walls jumping right into…

“aAH -!!” Arthur backpedaled away from Lewis’s towering form, but was stopped short by a deadbeat behind him, who now bared razor sharp claws and teeth. It soon disappeared, retreating back to its master’s anchor.

The skeleton ghost’s lit up sockets were staring straight into his eyes, unwavering focus on the blonde as his arms were held firmly behind his back. His spectuaral hair had flared up during the process, crackling like a bonfire with no pause. Arthur gulped. If looks could kill, he would be deader than a doorknob by now.

“Lew -!”

“ **That’s quite enough from you, Kingsmen.** ” Lewis cut him off, the venom dripping from his voice. He floated closer towards Arthur, close enough to put his hand on the man’s shoulder, but he refrained from doing as such.

Arthur looked down at his feet while Lewis clenched his fists into balls and growled. “ **You shouldn’t have come here.** ”

“I… I’m sorry I.. I just wanted t..to try to make it up to you… is all..!” Arthur whimpered. He wanted nothing more than to just curl up into a little ball for the next few hours, but that wasn’t an option right now.

“I just wa-wanted to make things r..right…”

“ **And how do you expect to do that, huh?!** ”

“I…..” Arthur fell silent once more, letting out a frustrated grunt at his lack of words.

Lewis’s hair crackled even more and he moved up closer to Arthur.

“ **I’m getting real tired of having to wait for you to say something, cabrón! If you’re going to say something, get on with it already!** ” his voice raised a little more.

Arthur yelped, but was no longer looking up at the ghost’s eye sockets. Lewis was fixing to get onto him about it, but opted to follow the blonde’s gaze instead. To the spirits' horror, he came to realize that his arm was starting to raise up, fist clenched into a tight ball. When did that begin to happen? Whether he was aiming for the wall next to the frightened man or, god forbid, the man himself, he didn’t know, but the ghost was sure of at least one thing.

He was going too far.

In the blink of an eye the fire on the walls died out, along with the ghost’s hair, his eye sockets, previously lit up with magenta rings, now becoming dark pits. The atmosphere almost immediately went from one of anger to that of distress, as the room darkened to its previous state.

“ **I… Arthur… I… Oh, god…** ” the ghost whimpered and quickly stationed himself on the other side of the room from the mentioned blonde.

Arthur looked towards Lewis again, surprised by the sudden change in mood.

“Lewis…?”

“ **I’m so sorry Arthur… I’m so so sorry…** ” Now it was Lewis’s turn to look down, ashamed of himself.

“ **I promised you I’d never hurt you again, but yet here I am.... doing it again...** ”

Arthur put up a shaky smile, a forced one, but a smile nonetheless. “N-No!”

Lewis looked up now, baffled by the response. “ **What?** ”

“I..It’s ok! Really! I..It.. It was my fault! I started this stupid argument! I did something unforgivable! Y..You should be mad a..at me ....”

There he went again, blaming himself, as always. Lewis heaved a heavy sigh.

“ **Arthur… please. Please don’t blame yourself… not this time…** ” he couldn’t hide the pleading whine in his voice.

“ **What I did… and what I was doing is unacceptable. You should be the one mad at me, yet you’re not. I lost my temper and went too far, please… I don’t think I can handle you shoving all the blame on yourself anymore.** ”

Arthur’s face fell and his eyes overshadowed.

_Of course._

_After all this time… he’s still hurting Lewis. Indirectly, but hurt nonetheless. All because of these stupid feelings of his..._

“Lewis… I…” But before he could finish, Lewis interjected.

“ **Maybe it would’ve been better… If I had just never came back at all.** ”

Arthur’s heart sank to the very depths of himself at those words, pupils becoming pinpricks and tears almost immediately forming in his eyes. Arthur violently shook his head. “N… NO!”

Arthur ran up to the ghost in an instant, but Lewis only turned his back towards him.

“L-Lew… p..please! Don’t s-say that..! Please….”

Arthur snatched one of Lewis’s hands, gripping it as if it were his only lifeline.

“Please… Vivi needs you! Your family needs y..you!”

Silence.

“L..Lew.. I.. I-I need you…I… I love you… please…” his voice was shaky and had cracked with the finale ‘please’.

Arthur stopped to sniffle. Tears were running down his face at this point, showing no signs of stopping any time soon. He pressed his forehead against the ghost’s back, hoping to whatever higher force there might’ve been that it would be enough to convince the spirit to stay with him.

“I can’t lose you…”

A beat passed between the 2 before Lewis answered in a lowered voice with something that only made Arthur’s heart hurt more.

“ **You already did.** ”

**Author's Note:**

> Lord help these 2 they are full of... so much guilt.


End file.
